ADB lends $1.7b for irrigation, power projects
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said it has approved two loans totaling 1.7 billion dollars to fund irrigation and power projects in Pakistan.
The first loan worth 900 million dollars would fund a project to help improve the management of Punjab’s water resources and increase productivity of the province’s irrigated agriculture. The Manila-based ADB said the loan “will meet about a quarter of the estimated total cost of 3.5 billion dollars to upgrade the state’s irrigation and water resources infrastructure.
“The programme will finance comprehensive rehabilitation and upgrading of Punjab’s irrigation infrastructure, improve strategies and practices for groundwater management and facilitate improved irrigation technology,” the bank said in a statement.
The second loan worth 800 million dollars would support Pakistan’s programme to remove transmission bottlenecks to power delivery.